Coupe de France (7th round). Ruffiac-Malestroit (R2) – FC Lorient (L2), Saturday (3:30 p.m.)
Romain Houeix was the second player to leave the locker room to warm up and the second, too, to re-enter, just before kick-off. And maybe that’s no coincidence. The central defender of Ruffiac-Malestroit (R2) was impatient to play against TA Rennes to definitively switch to a “very special” week, culminating in the 7th round of the Coupe de France, Saturday (3:30 p.m.), against Lorient (L2). “Maybe if an opposing player leaves alone in the 80th minute, I will think before intervening, but the idea is to still give your all,” he warned before the start of the match.
Maxime Michel, the Morbihan coach, has also lined up his eleven type, with one exception. Captain Guillaume Houeix, injured, was preserved before Lorient. “I have no other choice. I don't have a large enough workforce to rotate. The reserve has just moved up to D1 and the level between the two divisions is too great. Only four or five players from team B can go up first,” admitted the technician. Not a player from the A, either, defected or asked not to play this match for fear of injury. In any case, “they had no interest, it’s up to the coach to decide. Otherwise, I would have made my choices for Lorient.
On the field, Romain Houeix, captain for a day, and his teammates were beaten quite sharply (4-1). A setback expected by everyone while he was maintaining, Ruffiac-Malestroit had conceded eight goals, here, last season. “We divide by two,” laughed Houeix. The Morbihannais have notably sinned in aggressiveness. A coincidence as the match of a lifetime looms “everyone thinks about it, even the coach,” admitted Gilles Lamy, number 9. “It’s an event that happens very rarely. But we didn't play with the handbrake, we still ran. They were simply better than us.
“Against Guipry, last week, we perhaps foiled while thinking of Lorient (2-0 defeat), but not there,” confirmed Hugo Lanoe, the scorer of the day. We didn't cheat. The instruction was to give your all and it was respected. In any case, I didn't calculate in relation to the Cup. There was no fear of injury on our side. It's when we think about it that we get hurt. Florian Tastard will be able to testify to this: little number 7 was forced out after being hit in the calf. But his presence on Saturday did not seem to be understood. It was ultimately the only scare of an afternoon where Ruffiac did not even tremble after a possible warning. No player was under threat of suspension for accumulating yellow cards. Only direct red was to be avoided at all costs. A mission perfectly accomplished, the field referee only issued a single warning to a Rennais player. “On this point, there was a little restraint among our defensive line and our midfielders in the duels, because a red arrives quickly,” admitted Romain Houeix, smiling from ear to ear, because he now knew what was going to happen. awaited: the match of a lifetime. “We took a lot of waves today (Sunday), but against Lorient, it will be ten times worse,” concluded the very young father.
